"Give up now, Miles." Tails growled at his foe, as blood spurted from Miles' truncated arm.
"No, he won't." Alicia snapped, before Miles could respond. "He has his orders. And he will carry them out. Won't you, Miles?" Her gaze turned from Tails to rest upon her champion and advisor.
"Yes...my queen." Came the curt, pained reply through blooded teeth, and Miles clamped his free hand over the wound, stemming the flow of blood as he wheeled to face his foe again. "I will repair any damages." And he closed his eyes.

From Miles' chest a single gem emerged, and then multiplied into seven, spreading round him in a ring. For a moment they floated there, then slammed inwards towards him with the sound of crunching bone. Tails watched for a moment, not comprehending, then understood, and darted forward, seeking to bury his blade in Miles' chest before he could finish.

Miles eyes lit up and his fur burned, snapping to and fro as if caught within an inferno, the bright yellow sheen evaporating and a dull grey appearing in its stead. Then it all stopped. All was silent again, and Miles opened his eyes. Two black orbs stared back at Tails, a blazing purple light at the centre of each one. Inches from impact, he reacted to the charge. One of his tails snapped around and with a spiteful crack met one of Tails' own. His chaos shield held, but his own strength did not – Tails had reacted on instinct and with his own natural chaos power; Miles had the strength of a super form behind him, and the pure force of the blow knocked Tails back from him, the Mobian fox landing awkwardly and stumbling backwards a couple of steps, almost to the chamber doors.

"Good, now let's deal with this." Miles lowered his bloodied glove from what remained of his right arm as a pencil-thin stick of white bone slid from within the wound, growing over itself splinter by splinter like some cancerous growth taking over. Veins and arteries followed like vines, forming an intricate latticework spreading over the white scaffolding. Some grew out and merged with thick muscle growth appearing through the gaping wound, while others pursued the bone as it formed the hand, holding each little segment together in a quivering, wet mass.

As the muscle formed over Miles' wrist and hand he flexed it experimentally, wincing as wet muscle steamed in the air and pain rung from exposed nerve endings. Tails attacked again as the skin began to roll back down the arm, tossing the blade with one hand, spinning it through the air like an imbalanced throwing knife, once again aiming for his damaged arm in an attempt to hold it back, to provide him with a weak spot.
Miles' hand moved in a blur, catching it between his good thumb and forefinger with an almost lazy catch. "Really, you'll have to try better." Fur followed the skin, sprouting and growing to its full length in seconds, the same grey as the rest of him, and he closed his hand, warping the metal round his fingers. It twisted for a moment, and then snapped. As the metal shards clattered to the stone floor, the final tufts of deep grey grew into being with a flourish, his gloveless hand revealing claws made of blackened bone.

"What my queen demands, I carry out. She lays her claim to someone who is no being in our world, who does not exist, whose physiology is incomparable to any other on this planet. She orders me to protect it, and so her will is done." He moved. A blur. Tails felt, more than saw his approach, and anger lit within him.
"And it was Fiona's will to stay, before she was taken. It was Moebius that broke her resolve. It was your lies that hurt her. You are the reason for her pain" Miles struck him in that instant, slamming into him faster than the eye could see. As he made impact, black fire erupted in a thundering explosion around him, blasting out and settling on the floor and columns like strips of enflamed cloth.

Miles had struck something other than Tails. A black, seething barrier separated the two of them now, rage purified and given solidity.
"I will undo my mistake!" A voice from beyond the barrier roared, and colossal force struck Miles' forehead. A force that made his assault waver. "I will undo yours!" A second force, more powerful than the first, struck his chest and forced him away.
As his hands left the barrier it flickered and faded. Now he saw. It was still Tails. His fur the colour of charred flesh and his eyes bloody red, and though there were no pupils, through some gut feeling he felt them settle on him.

"I was hoping not to kill anyone else. I wanted no further bloodshed. The guards were enough. Scourge was enough. His death was all I needed. If he had simply left, if he had not returned and taken her, I would have lived without his death. He stole her, and now you keep her like a possession, like a pet. You take her free will from her. You condemn her to a life of constant pain. Of reliance on you to simply allow her to live for the next few weeks." He raised his hands out to his sides. "You have taken all of this from her. I will take it back."

One moment he was there. The next, only inches separated him and Miles, his hand wrapped around the Moebian's throat. "You are in my way."
"And you're in mine." Through the rage in Tails' voice he spoke calmly, betraying nothing. One hand rose slowly to clamp round Tails' wrist. "Your strength is formidable. Your skill is not." His other hand smashed against Tails' shoulder as his first tightened around the one gripping his neck. His strike threw him slightly, and then the sudden pressure opened his hand just slightly, and that was enough for him to be free.

He shifted away, hand outstretched and darting towards the Morganite blade still clutched in the fingers of his dismembered limb.
Pain burnt into his back, Tails moving more swiftly than he could and his claws raking across Miles' back, digging into the armour – useless now – and his fur, catching him and throwing him away, further from his target. Now the dark boiling range stood between him and a weapon that would surely end this.
"I obey my queen by choice. I destroy you by her command." He lashed out again, throwing his hand out wide. From his palm came a stream of red needles, filling the air between the two combatants. They split and shattered against a burning shield, and that shield became a ball, then a spear, returning the distance only to reduce a column to rubble as Miles shifted around the attack.

They both charged and came together again, hands locking, sparks and fire flashing between them as energy was spent fruitlessly against the shield of the other. Both were strong, both had unimaginable power flowing within them and so much was spent within seconds that both as they had been would have been reduced to ash.

"I fight now not for me, or for your pain. I fight so that she will not feel it." He lunged suddenly, cracking his forehead against Miles' nose. There was a sickening crunch as rage and chaos overcame chaos invulnerability and a spurt of bright fluorescent blood spurted from the damage.
"I fight and I will feel pain. I will go through hell and smile so that she can be happy!" He smashed his forehead into Miles' face again, the bones crunching further and finally eliciting a growl of pain from the other.

Their tails clashed, charcoal black and muted grey striking off each other over and over. Their power was equal. Miles had the home ground. Tails' strength was fuelled by rage. Miles fought because the queen said it should be so. Tails fought because he had made himself a promise, he had made an unspoken promise to his friends and Fiona. He fought because he could not bear to let go a second time.
"This is why I fight! He drove his forehead against Miles for a third time, this time striking his opponent's forehead too. He puts his strength into the blow, his rage and pain, his wrongs and his loss. For a moment, he was a weapon, bright and vibrant.

Within Miles, his power flared, burnt out and died in the face of the power unleashed. His super form was strong, and a match for Tails even as the latter resided in the darkness. But his conviction was not the same. He had seen what had been done to Felicia, and though the one who had killed her was now beginning to decompose, he still carried with him the memory of what had been done, and now he could not forget. It was burned into him, and part of him indeed had wanted Tails to succeed.

The energy of the Anarchy Beryls faltered within him, their power and his splitting and disintegrating. The beryls flew from him, the colour returning to his fur and the darkness in his eyes draining to its true colour. As the seventh fell from him, Tails caught it in his outstretched hand. With what remained of his rage he tightened his grip, tighter, and tighter, and it shattered in his palm.

As Tails returned to himself, the emeralds remained within him and he turned away from Miles for a moment, and stooped to retrieve his fallen blade. Antoine's weapon was useless now, but the Morganite blade was still intact, and he held it to the Moebian's throat.
"I will only ask you once, Miles. Do you yield?"
He met Tails' gaze unflinchingly, but without the fight they had held before. Then his eyes drifted to his side, to Alicia. "My queen, the fight is his. He will either kill me, and then anyone else who stands in his way, or he will leave with the girl. If you would have me still not submit, then I can't vouch for your life, or anyone else's."

Alicia looked from the two male foxes to the vixen who rested on her knee, and nodded, releasing her grip on the brunette. She had hoped to keep them both, but she knew Miles and he had told her what Fiona would be put through to survive. She would rather she let one go so that they would both survive. She was true to her word – she wasn't heartless.

"Alright. You can go." She said. Fiona stood up, made her way down the steps in front of the throne, and over to Tails' side. He clasped her wrist, and backed away towards the doorway, still pointing the blade at them.
"I'll be keeping this. Antoine will need a replacement, and honestly, I don't trust you to not stab me in the back." Tails stated, raising the sword slightly to indicate what it was he was talking about.
"Whatever." Miles groaned, climbing unsteadily to his feet as Alicia stood up and moved over to his side, and Tails and Fiona turned and headed out of the room.

Tails hesitated. "I take it that you do want to come home?"
"Yeah, if you could call it that now. The others aren't going to be happy to see me. Not after Amy went to rile them up."
"We all came to rescue you."
"Rescue or arrest?"
"Rescue." Tails repeated. "I convinced them to help you."
"How did you manage that?"

"Because I think I understand what was going on with you. First off, Scourge was a good liar. It was about the only thing he could really do, but it was something he was damn good at doing. He had no trouble convincing myself – though I loathe admitting it – or Sally or anyone that he was the real Sonic. You haven't known Sonic for as long as we have, so it would have been easier for him to use that to worm his way into your trust, and then start filling your head with more lies once you were listening to him. Then it would have become a task of playing on your weaknesses, like your past, which would have made it even easier. You had just the right kind of harsh life to make you vulnerable to his manipulations. On top of that, yes we're your friends, but… we haven't been as supportive as we should have, and while you were with Sonic, he was clearly still pining for Sally, and not fully invested in your relationship. Finally, we have the fact that you decided to stay the moment you learned that it was all a huge farce and Scourge was a monster. There's a lot of emotion, deceit, trust and betrayal involved, but it can be understood like anything else."
"Oh, thank you."
"Come on; let's go get your clothes."
"No, I have other bodysuits. We need to get out of here before Miles recovers or Alicia sends anyone else after us. I don't know how super forms work, but you must be tired."
"If you say so." Tails shrugged, then stumbled. He staggered to the wall and slumped against it, his breathing suddenly laboured.
"Tails!"
"I'm… I'm okay… just tired. It happens after I use the synthetic Emeralds. Guess the adrenaline rush just wore off. I just need a little time."

Fiona walked around, stooped low, moving between Tails and the wall, and placed her shoulders under his outstretched arm. Then she reached out, and took the blade, curling her free arm around his midriff.
"Thanks."
"You're welcome. Now let's go."

Finding the other Freedom Fighters didn't take long. They were in a corridor, surrounded by unconscious guards. Sally had regained consciousness, and was leaning against Sonic as she rapidly tapped buttons and keys on the handheld which contained Nicole. Antoine was still mostly out of it, and Bunnie still held him in her arms. Rotor was the first to notice the two foxes approaching.

"Guys, look." He said. Four heads lifted up, and the group finally reunited.
"Tails, what happened?" Sonic asked.
"I managed to beat Miles. I ended up using the Emeralds again. It took a lot out of me, but I'm alright. Just tired. He could have beaten me, if he had just stuck with the swords."
"That's good." Bunnie smiled, relieved.
"Yeah, but we have to get out of here before Alicia sends more people after us." Fiona said. "She seems quite attached to me. I don't think I like it."
"Then let's move out." Sally commanded.

The walk back to the portal was mostly conducted in silence. Sally moved away from Sonic, to the head of the pack, occasionally giving a direction as they made their way back through the forest, while the hedgehog brought up the rear, keeping watch for any pursuers. At one point, Amy suggested that someone else support Tails, but he silenced her with a glare. Fiona ignored this, and kept walking, her eyes repeatedly drawn to Tails' new body, only for her to realise what she was doing and look away with a blush. The weight on her shoulders seemed to be decreasing, and she looked over at the male fox, who gave her a reassuring smile. Eventually, the portal appeared through the trees.

Stepping through it was a lot like blood rushing to the brain - sudden and disorienting, but passing quickly, and the Freedom Fighters were back in the basement of Freedom HQ. Tails stood up by himself, and drew in Chaos energy from the air around him, glowing as he revitalised himself, illuminating the room, as Sonic zipped over to the light switch, and flicked it.

"That's better." Sally said. "Now, Fiona. We need to talk."
"Okay…"
"First, I'm going to assume Tails' appraisal about your situation was correct?"
"Yes. It was really accurate. He has a future in psychology."
"Heh. Well, on account of that, combined with the work you've done for us - I daresay that without your services, several of us, myself included, would not be standing here today - and the fact that you are clearly very important to several of us, I want to forgive you. The problem I have is that while a lack of trust caused you to align yourself with Scourge, however briefly, doing so does not paint an image of you as a trustworthy person. " Sally sighed, rubbing her temples.
"I… I understand…" Fiona glanced away. She had been awaiting this, but that preparation made her no readier for the rebuttal.

"If I may interject." Tails spoke up. "I'd like to point out that Fiona carried me back from the castle on Moebius after the energy drain caught up with me, carrying a weapon that could have killed me no matter how many Emeralds I had to protect me. She could easily have killed me, but she chose to help me instead."
"Good point." Sally nodded. "I believe that all you want is to be accepted, correct?"
"Yes. Well, that and a second chance."
"Of course. And you regret the interactions you had with Scourge?"
"Yes, of course I do! I wish I'd never even met him."
"Then I look at it like this. You regret your actions, you are an invaluable member of our team, both in terms of contribution and personal attachments, and you didn't actually do anything against the team as a whole. What you did will have to be discussed with Sonic, but 'betraying' an already failing relationship is hardly grounds to punish you. Added up, I'm going to forgive you. I want you to report to my office tomorrow, so we can get a better understanding of one another, and so that you won't feel isolated again."
"R-really? Thank you!"

"Now, we have a small problem…" Sally sighed once again. "Even if I'm willing to simply let this slide, the fact remains that you have gone against a princess of crown, an act of treason, that still carries a death penalty that we haven't yet had the time to change." She paused a moment, and relief in their faces turned to shock, but Sally remained calm. "No – let me finish. The only ones who know the real extent of what has happened are in this room, and even those opinions are somewhat controversial…" She glanced for a moment at Amy. "So, for the sake of no more loss of life, I think we are all prepared to conveniently forget this has ever happened."
"You can do that?"
"Do what?" Sally arched an eyebrow at her, then winked. "Now, there's something you have to sort out for yourself. I believe you and Sonic both know what this is about."

Sally turned, and led the other Freedom Fighters up the stairs. Tails cast Fiona a look, but she nodded and smiled softly, a signal she could handle this alone. Reassured, he followed the others, leaving only the kitsune girl and the hedgehog in the room. The two avoided one-another's gaze for a moment, awkwardly looking at anything but the other.

"Some really fascinating marks on the wall, here." Sonic said after a moment. Fiona giggled, and looked up. The ice broken, things didn't seem to awkward now.
"You know, I think that's why I liked you in the first place. Things didn't always seem so tense with you."
"Yea, well…I kinda too that took far, didn't I? I don't ever really stop and look back on my mistakes and normally I'm not the sort of guy to admit that either…until now. Scourge showed up, but he actually paid attention to you that I was meant to be giving you, while we were together. Things were bound to get screwed up."
"So… you're not mad?"
"I'm not mad. I mean, you're a nice girl, Fi, and you really thought you were in the right. I wasn't doing my part of the relationship properly and that's what let Scourge in, because…well…"
"Because I'm not Sally?"
"Well, kinda…"
"It's okay." The vixen smiled shyly at Sonic's floundering. "We can't help who we love." She hesitated for a moment, then held out her hand. "Still friends?"
Sonic looked at her, then down at her hand, then took it in a firm, solid grip, a familiar, reassuring smirk crossing his face. "You know, after all this, all the shit I put you through, I should be asking that. But you've got a deal…just do me a favour. Talk to Tails, I mean really talk to him. I'm a waste of time if you want to talk about sciency-stuff, but I can see Tails needs you more than he's letting on. I'd wager he'd do more for you than I ever did.
"I will…" Fiona nodded, blushing. "But you have to talk to Sally. Work this whole thing out with her. She and I have got our similarities, but you won't find another one of her, not even on that other planet."
"Will do, Fi. Catch you later?"
"Sure thing." She let her hand drop. "Friends stay in touch, isn't that right?"
"You got it." He chuckled, the classic proud, headstrong and cocksure Sonic showing through. "Great. Well, gotta speed."

With that, Sonic was gone in a flash of blue and a strong tailwind. Fiona watched the blur fade, sighed, and made her own way up the stairs. The pumps she had been given had a slightly steeper heel than she was used to, which made the steps slightly harder to negotiate, but she made it to the top. Finding Tails lining against the wall wasn't a huge surprise, but it was still nice to see.

"How did everything go?" He asked.
"We're gonna stay friends, but we aren't together anymore. He's going to talk things over with Sally, and he said I had to talk to you."
"About what?"

"I guess about how things are between us now." Fiona shrugged, a blush staining her cheeks. "You saved me twice today. Even after everything, and with the possibility that I really was going to go with Scourge for real, you convinced me not to go. You fought to protect me. You wouldn't risk anything when he had me at knife-point. You convinced everyone that I was still a good person and went all the way to Moebius to fetch me back. You stormed into a castle filled with psycho versions of our friends alone, fought off a guy in power armour using a form of combat you have no experience with, and beat him on his own turf… just so that I could be safe and happy. No one's ever done anything that… amazing for me before. Thank you, thank you so much."

"You're welcome." Tails replied, as Fiona approached him. Then he frowned, realising he'd sort of missed her point.
"You've been so sweet, and I know you aren't just some kid now, you proved that enough, so, maybe I could give you a chance, and we could try dating? If you want to, that is?"
"Want to? I'd love to, Fiona!" The male fox grinned, wrapping his arms around the vixen.
"My place at six?"
"I'll be there. I'm not going to be late a second time today."
"Excellent." She winked. With that, she kissed Tails' cheek, pivoted on her heel, and walked away, the spring back in her step., wobbling slightly with the heels. "Catch you later."
"Will do!" He called, as she vanished around the corner. "Things just got a whole lot brighter."

So yeah, that's our take on it. Like with the other collab, I'll sum up my final thoughts:

Vorahk's thoughts: Okay, whew. Production on this one wasn't as smooth as I would have liked, but it was about level with Splintered Shadows, so I won't complain, and it was only the issues that arose around the time of the finale that caused that.

I suppose my opinion of the original comic would be something to discuss. I know Therix hasn't read it and likely has no animosity towards the issue aside from what he's picked up from me, but I will say that issue 172 of the Sonic comics is without a doubt my least favourite issue of the comic that I have ever had the misfortune of picking up. It's nothing more than blatant glorifying of Scourge, character assassination for Fiona, and a string of kick the dog moments. It was really the point that it set in that Scourge would be an insufferable storm of recolour clichés that completely fail to satirize the source material.

As for Fiona's treatment, it's comparable to Sally's derailment in 134- She goes from being a normally smart, level-headed character to a total bitch in a microsecond, over a completely shitty reason, then belts her fandom-preferred significant other in the face and gains a massive hatedom. If anything, this is even more unnecessary than it was in 134. Sally could have just been kept going as is and been fine, but Fiona had multiple different directions her character could have taken, and almost all of them were better than this. And let's not forget that this is the point where she goes from being a badass normal who isn't amazingly strong, but intelligent and highly-skilled, and just separate enough from Sally to not count as a lame clone, to a super-strong, super-agile ninja who retains none of her own traits and becomes an evil counterpart to Sally instead. A face heel turn could have been well done for her, but instead, we get something that eschews character and the development thereof in order to give the furry fandom a boner.

Oh, and the second story is about Amy learning not to rely entirely on a hammer. First, it's Amy, so I automatically feel nothing nicer than contempt, second, this has had zero payoff. She's still wholey reliant on on the hammer.

Thus, the task was ahead of me. I wanted to create something that was the antithesis to this terrible issue. It didn't glorify Scourge (We killed him off), it didn't assassinate Fiona's character (We furthered her pre-existing development), and, in general, was actually fun to read (Unlike the issue in question). And I think we succeeded.

Of course, I wanted this to be extra-awesome, hence why I invited Therix along. Splintered Shadows was well-received, and it had some kickass fight scenes in it. I decided that giving this the same treatment was the best idea. Yes, we got a more aggressive Tails as a result, but for what happens in the story, I think it works.

I also think that the Suppression Squad reinventing themselves without Scourge's influence makes more sense. Otherwise, why would they upgrade from a biker-gang look to their more militaristic style, while Scourge keeps the biker look? Hence, they're already beyond using the names of their Prime selves.

It was enjoyable to work on, the changes Therix made only improved it, and I don't really have anything else to say. See you in whatever I create next, and thank you for reading.